Speaking of Hui'an County, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, people will think of Hui'an women. Hui'an women are famous for their hard work and special clothing, and the Hoi An stone sculptures with a history of more than 1600 years are also famous, known as "China's best". As early as 2006, Hoi An stone carvings were selected into the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In 2015, Hoi An was awarded the "World Capital of Stone Carving" by the World Crafts Council. Hoi An stone carving can be passed down for thousands of years, stemming from craftsmen who love the art of stone carving.
Hui'an stone carving originated from the Central Plains, after thousands of years of baptism, the integration of the Central Plains culture, Fujian-Vietnamese culture, Maritime Silk Road culture as one, the essence of the Jin Dynasty and Tang Dynasty relics, Song and Yuan Shen yun, Ming and Qing style, the formation of exquisite carving, delicate and flexible and highly aesthetic value of the Southern School art style, is a wonderful flower of China's excellent traditional art.
The origin of Hui'an stone carving is the carving technology brought by the immigrants from the Central Plains to the south, and the stone carving of the tomb of Wang Chao at the end of the Tang Dynasty is basically inheriting the Central Plains style of the Tang Dynasty. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Quanzhou's Jingtong Port became increasingly prosperous, with frequent maritime traffic and foreign economic trade and cultural exchanges, and multicultural integration here. At this time, large-scale construction of temples and stone bridges throughout southern Fujian also promoted the development of stone carving in Hoi An.
From the end of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Hui'an stone carving gradually got rid of the traditional characteristics of the central plains of the central plains of "one horse Pingchuan" and "holding high and fighting high", absorbed the spirit of the Ming shui xiu in the Minnan Mountains, and formed a distinct and unique southern stone carving art style, and Li Zhou, who was known as the "Grandmaster of the Southern School Stone Carving Generation of the Qing Dynasty", was the leader of this period.
Li Zhou lived between the Kangxi and Qianlong dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, and on the basis of the traditional stone carving "needle black and white" craft, he integrated the art of painting into stone carving and innovated the development of shadow carving technology. Thanks to Li Zhou's bold innovation, Hoi An stone carving broke through the old rules and entered a mature stage. Since then, there have been Jiang Mingsmiths who have been shining brightly and shining brightly. They have gone out of their homes and opened stone carving workshops in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Taiwan and other places and all over Southeast Asia, and the products have been exported in large quantities.
In Taiwan's carving art circles, there has been a saying that "no Jiang is not a scene", that is, if there is no carving master surnamed Jiang to undertake on-site art production, the artistic position of stone carving works will be difficult to guarantee. And this "Jiang" specifically refers to the carving master surnamed Jiang in Wufeng Village, Chongwu Town, Hui'an County. Jiang Bingding is one of the representative figures. In 1953, Jiang Bingding accepted the employment of Chen Jiageng as the main stone carving technician of the "Aoyuan" project in Jimei, Xiamen, and participated in the construction of this world-famous stone carving "Grand View Garden".
In recent years, Hoi An stone carvings have crossed the ocean and settled all over the world. Martin Luther King Jr. statue in the United States, Zheng He statue in the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia, Jian Zhen Monk Garden in Japan... Both have been highly praised for their unique artistic charm.
Jiang Huimin is the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Hui'an stone carving craft, grew up in a family of stone carvings, and inherited Jiang Bingding. In order to carve out good products, Jiang Huimin often lingered in various monuments to "be old and learn from the old". His works adhere to the traditional Chinese aesthetics, absorb the essence of grotto art, and the style is simple and simple. His masterpiece is the statue of the Four Heavenly Kings in the Zhongtai Zen Temple in Taiwan, which is 12 meters high.
While adhering to traditional techniques, Hoi An stone carving has been innovating in recent years. Shadow carving is a typical representative of Hui'an stone carving art, is the use of special alloy steel needles, on the Qingdou stone or black gall stone or light or heavy chisel out of countless small dots, just like "dripping water through the stone", embroidered on the stone thousands of worlds, like a photo lifelike, so there is "Suzhou and Hangzhou embroidery silk, Minnan embroidery embroidery stone" saying. At present, the shadow carving process has developed laser shadow carving, sandblasting shadow carving, etc., and the shadow carving works have been selected as precious diplomatic gifts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many times.
Touching history, watching the years, and listening to stone language, people can't help but admire the exquisite skills and sincere ingenuity of Hui'an stone carving artists, who are their protection and inheritance, so that this ancient art flower can bloom undefeated.
【Perceiving heaven and earth in nature, harvesting surprises in daily life】
New Media, Chinese Global Program Center, China Central Radio and Television Corporation
Source: CCTV4